Brunswick lifts boil-water advisory for Washington County residents

September 08, 2011

BRUNSWICK, Md. — An alert was lifted Wednesday for 15 residents in southern Washington County who have been boiling their water since Aug. 23, when a magnitude 5.9 earthquake damaged Brunswick's water system, city officials said.

City Administrator Rick Weldon said the earthquake stirred up settled solids and sediment deep in the aquifer that serves Yourtee Springs.

"Initially, we shut down the spring, which normally serves Weverton, New Addition and the west end of the City of Brunswick," Weldon said in an email.

"We were able to reconfigure our water system to push water treated at our water plant all the way back up into Washington County, but there were approximately 15 customers that we couldn't get water to."

Weldon said those residents didn't have potable water, so the city arranged to have a water tanker park at Himes Store in Weverton.

"Those affected residents were able to get water there," he said. "Eventually, about a week and a half ago, we turned on the flow from the spring, but had to direct those 15 houses to boil any water intended for human consumption."

Weldon said inspectors from the Maryland Department of the Environment told city officials that they had to conduct more than a week's worth of testing before service could be restored.

"The boil notice for those final 15 customers was lifted (Wednesday)," and the system was returned to its normal configuration Thursday, he said.